some swine with that cheese.....

ER celebration humor
Originally uploaded by Nikki McLeod

oh ER humor.

swine cakes in celebration of ER nurses week showed up today. painstakingly and wonderfully handmade.... including the pink marshmellows. touche, martha.

i might add a sad note, however, that last week, in honor of PA week, there was nothing. not one treat. this week it might as week might as well be halloween, valentines and easter all rolled up into one sugary gooey morsel. and the one PA who i actually wished a happy PA day to responded, "oh, ok. wait, what? we have a day?"

who needs recognition, anyway. i can steal the nurse's treats and be just as happy.

besides being ignored by hospital administration as a professional, however, i have been having quite a fabulous time in the ED. more fun that i thought i would have. seeing more craziness than i thought. rural ER's are fun that way, since the weird is usually funny and interesting instead of...really weird. ie... drunk/stinky/psychotic.

gunshot wounds, eyeball foreign bodies, GI foreign bodies, broken bones from tripping over the dog and falling off tractors, GI bleeds, heart attacks, miscarriage, lacerations, car accidents, ginormous hernias gone unchecked for 8 years, lumbar punctures, central lines, NG tubes, and today, icing on the cake, an addisonian crisis. i mean....that's good stuff. i might be in love.

except for the swine flu bit. these patients are everywhere. probably a 3:1 ratio to all the fun stuff is flu symptoms. and these people are miserable, but sent home. and not accounted for, cause that only happens in the state of OR if you're admitted. fun fact for the day. huh.
my favorite are the patients that come in after trying to battle it out for a day at work and then realize they're too sick. nice. move. people.

i have yet to be immunized for that. i'm sort of hoping that i'm getting enough exposure to sort of boost my immune system just by showing up. i am intrigued by the RN's tales of consequences at the hospital, and at other hospitals about what will happen to them if they don't get the H1N1 immunization. like having to take vacation time if they get sick, or in extreme circumstances, being fired. it's quite a controversy these days, and i think it's weird that it seems to have landed on the RN's shoulders the hardest. this as we admitted 5 patients on my shift alone today and then had to divert the rest since the nursing staff in the rest of the hospital was too depleted to fill the remaining 10 beds that were open....8 RN's called out sick on one floor alone today. i thought the nursing supervisor was going to lose it completely.

so
fingers will remain very clean and crossed from here on out.
except for when they're covered in chocolate and pink icing...